Lunia
Lunia is an "Action Arcade" MMORPG. This translates to being a more action oriented game, where you directly control your character and its actions, with your keyboard or gamepad, in a similar fashion you might in the average console game. You can download the client here. Characters Thus far, there are 17 characters: * Sieg Helmont, the Knight * Eir Peltrow, the HealerEir_Guide * Dainn Crowley, the Wizard * Tia, the Thief * Dacy Dalstrin, the Puppeteer * Lime, the Combat Slime * Krieg El Hati, the Templar * Yuki, the Ice Wizard * Arien Carnesir, the Elven Archer * Ryan Hunt, the Bounty Hunter * Kali, the Dark BardKali_Guide * Asuka, the Dual-Wielder * Ralph, the Fighter * Dark Eir, the Dark Princess * Arta, the Engineer * Gaon, * Iris, the Flame Witch Gameplay Lunia is most like a "beat-em-up" game (or a "button smashing" game) such as Double Dragon or Final Fight. PvP in the game is similar to fighting games such as Street Fighter, Tekken, Guilty Gear, or even Super Smash Brothers; up to 8 people can join in a melee for free-for-all or team battles. The concept of "Damage per Second" present in most MMO games is erased, as every individual blow you receive or give can greatly alter the course of battle. Merely placing an attack requires precision and forethought. Tanking, in the traditional meaning, is impossible, as 2-8 good hits from an enemy can kill you and make you lose one of your 3 "lives". Healers can heal you pretty well, but a healer in the middle of a spell is extremely vulnerable, mana is fairly limited, and you must stand relatively near them for most heal spells. Even without these challenges, many enemies can kill you much too fast to be healed if you get yourself into trouble. Control You have an overhead view of your character, and have 8-way directional control, via the Numpad. The A, S, and Spacebar keys will unleash different attack strings depending on the combination pressed. Double-tapping a direction initiates a dash. Skills are placed on the quickbar, and can be activated by hitting the corresponding number key. Finally, some characters have evasive moves that are achieved through a combination of A, S, and/or Spacebar. It seems simple at first, but there are many different things that can happen depending on your timing, combination of buttons, or distance from the enemy. There are multiple cancels and combo attacks that can be accomplished depending on your skills (both hard-coded and human skill). Many skills have special properties that can disable an enemy for a while, knock them down, or push them back. Typical combo: Stages (PvE) Rather than a free roaming world, players join a Town Square. From there, they can buy and sell items, upgrade their weapons, chat, or choose from a list of Stages. These "Stages" are progressive in a similar way to old console games; you must beat Stage 1 at least once to access Stage 2, Stage 2 to access Stage 3, and so on. Once you beat Stage 10, the next episode is unlocked. There is also a "Legend" mode, which is basically Lunia in "hard mode". Finally, there are also a number of 8-player raids, which usually offer higher challenge than regular stages. These are optional, but offer lots of action packed battles and good prizes. They often require even more teamwork, as they can have complicated objectives. A player can jump straight into any stage that they have unlocked, and will be randomly placed into a public "instance" of that stage, pairing you with any others who have done the same. However, this method makes it difficult to get players for specific stages later on. For stages higher up the list, it is best to use the Party menu, accessible from a button on the right, to make a group for a stage. A stage will have enemies placed throughout a fairly linear path, sometimes with objectives. At the end, you will fight a Boss enemy that will often have insane attack patterns that can defeat you very quickly if you get caught in them. It is important to learn the properties of the attacks, and act in a manner conducive to staying alive (and not getting your fellow party members killed). Combat can be pretty fast paced, especially when dealing with multiple life-threatening dangers. Combo attacks become extremely important later on (especially Legend stages), as the damage bonus for juggling a monster in the air will help you defeat dangerous monsters much more quickly. PvP PvP is initiated in much the same way as Stages are. You and 1-7 other players are placed in an arena to battle it out. Each player has 3 lives, as in Stages. Damage is dealt in the same way, although the combo bonus is replaced with a damage reduction - the longer you juggle the opponent, the less damage your attacks do. Levels and Equipment still count, but a skilled level 20 will easily walk over a poor level 30. You can gain levels from PVP, as well as "PVP levels" which are mostly just for posterity. Battles play out similar to those of fighting games. You must maneuver through the opponent's attacks and try to land your own. Since there is no blocking, evasion by dashing becomes the primary defense, although there are some skills that have invincibility frames. The game has a lot of "okizeme", where you knock down the enemy and you and your opponent try to anticipate what the other will do, and zoning games, where you try to limit their possible retaliations by driving them into a corner and trying to keep them there. You will also spend a lot of time in the air, waiting for your opponent to finish their long combo strings. You pretty much have to use the Party menu to locate and join in on PVP battles, as there aren't that many random public ones. Misc. Content Track in the Forest was removed. There is a special racing map called Track in Forest. Here, you can race against other players to win special "pieces of gold" (not to be confused with regular gold) that can be cashed in for prizes. The more people that participate in the race, the more gold can be won by the top racers. There are many crazy obstacles and gauntlets to avoid and bumpers that will fling you forward at high speeds. For all ongoing events, see Current events. Time-based Events A couple events in Lunia are based on the time of day. *The Cave of Chaos, a raid located in Myth, is only available for entrance during specific times during the weekend. *Pop-Stages are also time-based events that occur daily. These would include, but not limited to, "Monster Counter-Attack", and "Advance of Orcs". The stages listed below no longer exist: ''-Documented for historical purposes?'' The Angry Whirlwind Spirit appears in Stone Wind Rock Hill every 5 minutes to the hour up until the hour. It is possible to fight two in a row. The regeants from Hidden Elf Garden change based on time from the hour. Experience Points Characters receive experience points for killing monsters or completing quests, as with other RPGs, and can level up. This does the standard RPG thing of giving you better statistics, and also gives you Skill Points that can be used to unlock new skills or improve existing ones. However, unlike most games of the genre, experience grinding is not required to progress. Your character is usually at a suitable level to take on whatever stage it happens to be at, although the stages later in the game will require you and your party to have a tighter grasp on control of their characters, and the mechanics of the stage, enemies, and boss. You may find yourself wiping out many times on a stage until you either get a higher level, or fix your strategy. Equipment Equipment is obtained through buying it in the town square, found in boxes dropped by enemies and bosses, or as a reward for completing certain quests. As per usual for the genre, some pieces of equipment are rare and those that have Vitality is especially valuable, since it is arguably the best statistic. Equipment can undergo Grading, which adds an extra bit of stats (either positive or negative), or Fortification, which also adds stats. Fortification can be done up to 15+ times, and has a progressively worse and worse chance of succeeding, or even breaking the item. There is also Light Fortification, which is similar. With all of these things combined, it is possible to make an item that is very valuable, due to the time-cost, rarity, and risks involved in making an item with all or most of these boosts. Quests Quests are not done the same as in other MMOs. They are still the typical "kill 5 of this kind of enemy", but do not send you to an area to obtain them. Instead, they permit you to gain rewards (usually just experience points) while doing the stages as you normally would. Much of the time, they require multiple runs of the same stage to fulfill the objectives. With the advent of the new square, the fountain as well as Luther Fred's boss quests no longer exist. Unless the quest can be finished in one run, or the quest offers a good item, they aren't usually worth the bother. A good exception is the "Luther Fred" series of quests given out by the man just south of the fountain in town. The objective in each is to kill the boss of a stage, and since you're doing that anyway... it's worth the clicks to accept them. See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunia